Well said. Not to mention, lets say you pay Avril all that money and now he gets hurt. Now you have a NON-all-pro, overpaid DE that cant even play anymore. Sure you can say we paid CJ all that money, but hes on a whole different planet than Avril.

Bottom line that i would say most agree with is this - pay him what hes WORTH. If that aint good enough, trade him.

Based upon what the Bills just paid Mark Anderson, it may be that Avril hasn't priced himself out of the market, but just out of Detroit's affordability range. Personally, I don't think he's worth more than $9M per season, at the most. But the contracts given to Anderson and Mario Williams dictate his market value as otherwise. The Lions simply don't have the money to pay that. Even if they were able to afford him this season by structuring the deal to make it cap friendly, in the future it comes back to haunt them.

I just explained in another thread what has to happen:

1. Avril and his agent find an interested team willing to pay him, but that won't give him an official offer sheet

2. Avril lets the Lions know such and such team is interested in a trade

3. Lions and other team negotiate a trade

4. Lions remove franchise tag, trade Avril

5. Avril signs with another team, Lions get draft picks

6. They all live happily ever after

Only 1 little problem with that.If the lions remove the franchise tag, Avril is a FA and the Lions get ZIP for him.

March 22nd, 2012, 6:09 pm

kdsberman

League MVP

Joined: February 20th, 2007, 10:51 pmPosts: 3527Location: Saginaw, MI

Re: Cortland Finnegan

So why is there the "two 1st rd pick" rule if the lions in this case wouldnt actually receive 2 first round picks? I must be missing something.

March 23rd, 2012, 1:01 am

buell17

Afghan Allstar

Joined: January 9th, 2006, 1:16 pmPosts: 564Location: San Diego, CA

Re: Cortland Finnegan

You can't trade a free agent, which is what he would be if we removed the tag from him. Basically he would have to sign a contract with us and then we could trade him. If that was the plan you would have to work in some type of language for the signing bonus, which is typically incurred by the original team and not the new team.

March 23rd, 2012, 1:05 am

inheritedlionsfan

League MVP

Joined: January 13th, 2006, 4:18 amPosts: 3680Location: Maryland

Re: Cortland Finnegan

Everyone is making this more complicated than it should be.

Avril is our franchise player. If another team signs him to an offer sheet, we have 1 week to match it or they get him and we AUTOMATICALLY receive two first round picks from that team.

However since that is a lot to give up, if a team is interested in Avril, they can work out an agreement with the Lions on a trade for any compensation we deem acceptable (just the same as they could for ANY player).

March 23rd, 2012, 8:41 am

TheRealWags

Megatron

Joined: December 31st, 2004, 9:55 amPosts: 12534

Re: Cortland Finnegan

BillySims wrote:

TheRealWags wrote:

Um, hello...Isn't this thread supposed to be about Cortland Finnegan???

Well, since Finnegan is a RAM now, the original intent of the thread is kind of obsolete don't you think?

SO then start a new thread

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